"Sir, when do we strike?"
"Court begins early in the morning. Time the strike to
occur with the first witness. That gives you approximately
five hours."
"It's done, sir."
"Very good, Helvan. You make me proud."
"Thank you, sir."
The SIO man turned and practically ran from the office.
Loor would have laughed, but he feared that might have
betrayed his true intentions. The attack he had designed
would call for a strike force of thirty SI operatives--three
cells' worth. He designated a bacta facility as the target be-
cause he knew lsard would approve of it and might set aside,
even for a moment, her fears about him. He chose Vorru as a
target both to strike at the man's vanity and so be could hurt
the man personally before he sold him out to the Rebels.
Stick the vibroblade in and modulate the oscillation rate.
Loor prepared the plans for transmission to Isard by
adding a note stating he intended to personally supervise the
operation, and then sent them. He shut down his datap ad,
then took one last look out the window of his sanctuary at
the brilliant galaxy of synthetic stars bek)w him. There will
be other towers and other chances to rise to such heights.
On a whim he turned on all of his lights and left them
burning like a beacon in the night as he abandoned his office
and set out on the most dangerous mission he had ever un-
dertaken.
Rubbing sleep from her eyes, leila Wessiri entered Halla Et-
tyk's office. "You look as haggard as I feel."
Halla looked up at her with bloodshot eyes. "You don't
know the half of it. Nawara Ven called me just past mid-
night. l've spent two hours meeting with him and various
Provo Council members. This is all madness." "Why tractor-beam me into it?"
Halla smiled. "Because you've been the one who's har-
bored little doubts about Tycho Celchu's guilt. We've got a
witness now who can confirm his innocence. We have to
bring him in, and you're going to help Nawara do the job."
leila blinked her eyes. "A witness? Lai Nootka came
forward?"
"Nope." Halla sat back and mischievous light played
through her brown eyes. "Someone who demanded your
presence. Said he'd only trust you to bring him in."
Who could that be? Iella's eyes narrowed. "Give me a
name."
"Can't. This office isn't secure enough." Halla pointed
toward the office window and the drapes drawn over it.
"Someone you knew well, once upon a time."
leila frowiled. Drapes? Curtains? tter jaw dropped
open. Kirtan Loor? "It can't be."
"It is. Code name is Behemoth."
"Right." He's the biggest Intelligence agent we've
brought in so far. "What's the drill?"
Halla yawned. "Sorry. Nawara just gave his little media
conference so Behemoth knows the deal is set. Nawara will
be coming here and will be waiting until Behemoth can get
him a message about pickup. I've arranged for you to get an
armored airspeeder. You'll take Behemoth to a safe house,
Nawara Veil will depose him, then you'll pack him up and
bring him here in time for court. We want him in and out
fast--we're counting on secrecy because he should have
enough information about Imperial ops that almost anyone
could want him dead."
Iella nodded. "You're not afraid I'll kill him?"
"Not before he clears Celchu of Horn's murder, no, I'm
not. Cracken will want him after that, but my only concern is
his impact on this trial." Halla shrugged, then blew a lock of
black hair from in front of her face. "I've already told you he
cut an immunity deal, so the only justice that will be done in
this case is getting Celchu off. You know how these deals
work."
"Yeah, they stink worse than Hurt-sweat, but you give
something to get something." Iella sighed. "Don't worry, I'll
bring him in safely."
"Never was worried about it."
Iella pointed to the hololink on the office's other desk. "I
need to speak with Diric."
Halla frowned. "Not a good idea."
"If I don't, he'll wait up. He always has, but he's really
not that strong anymore."
"No details, right?"
"Right."
"Go ahead." Halla stood and smoothed the wrinkles in
her skirt. "I'm going down the hall to brew up something
hot, dark, and stimulating. Can I bring you some?"
"Please." Iella sat down at the desk and entered her
home link number. She smiled reflexively when Diric an-
swered. "It's me."
"So it is, and with a smile." Diric stifled a yawn with his
hand. "Forgive me. How are you? Is there anything you
need? I can run it over."
"No, no, I'm fine, really." She forced her smile to
broaden. "I just called to let you know I'm not going to be
coming back home this morning."
"Anything wrong?" Irritation washed over Diric's face.
"No, can't be if you're smiling. Something good, then?"
"Work, work I can't tell you about. You'll find it fasci-
nating when I can."
"I can't wait. Sounds as if you have a big day ahead of
you." He glanced off to the side for a moment, then nodded.
'TII get some fruit and put it together with your lunch so you
can snack on it if there is a break. Will that work?"
"That'll be perfect, darling." Iella touched the hololink's
screen and caressed her husband's face. "It really is going to
be a big day tomorrow. You'll see why I can't say anything."
"1 understand. Thank you for letting me know you're
safe. I can try to get back to sleep now."
"Please do, Diric. Get all the sleep you can--enough for
both of us."
'Tll do my best." He smiled at her. "Be careful. I love
yOU."
"I love you, too." leila hit a button and broke the con-
nection. She sat back and sighed deeply. It's very strange to
find myself having to safeguard a hated enemy so he can
exonerate a man in the murder of a good friend. l'm not sure
Corran would appreciate the irony of the situation, but I do
know he wouldn't want an innocent man imprisoned for a
crime he didn't commit. I think that's as close to peace of
mind as I'm going to get out of this. I just hope it's enough
when all is said and done.
35
Never, in all the time he had secretly worked for Ysanne
Isard, had he gotten a message that revealed her to being
close to panic. The messages she had sent concerning the
remnants of Rogue Squadron and the need for their elimina-
tion had been more controlled and confident. Even after the
Alliance took Coruscant and she disappeared, her messages
had revealed a core of confidence that her activities would
bring about the destruction of the New Republic.
He had to admit that she had not been far wrong in her
beliefs in that regard. The Krytos virus had created such a
demand for bacta that the New Republic had all but bank-
rupted it
self trying to meet the minimum demand for the
lifesaving liquid. They had been desperate enough to strike a
deal for ryli with the Twi'leks, a gamble that could have
caused angry Thyferrans to cut off the bacta supply com-
pletely.
Confidence in the government had begun to erode be-
cause of the bacta crisis. Warlord Zsinj's predations on a
bacta convoy had dealt the public's belief in the government
a serious blow from which they would attempt to recover by
sending a task force under Han Solo's leadership to kill
Zsinj. In fact, however, the more insidious damage to the
government had been done by the government itself with the
Celchu trial. Originally Tycho Celchu had been held up as an
example of the evil perpetrated by the Empire, but Nawara
Ven's spirited defense had pointed out that the evidence
against Celchu was circumstantial and probably manufac-
tured. The obvious displeasure expressed by Rogue Squad-
ron's cherished heroes at Celchu's trial helped underscore the
weak foundation for the government's case.
He neither knew nor cared if Celchu was innocent. lsard
was very capable of arranging it so an innocent man ap-
peared to be guilty or vice versa. He did know she was using
the trial to hurt the government, and her efforts clearly were
succeeding--which is why the tenor of the note surprised
him.
In addition to summoning him to a meeting place, the
note directed him to dispatch teams of his people to various
sites in the Imperial Palace and Senate Hill areas. They were
to go armed and shoot on sight the individual whose file
she'd appended to the message. Many of the locations would
be all but impossible to get to at this hour a forty-third floor
foyer in the Imperial Palace, an tinused area of the Galactic
Museum, an old Imperial Senate subcommittee room. More-
over, it struck him that the only place she wasn't asking him
to send his men was the Imperial Courthouse. Since she
wanted everyone in place before court could open, and since
the target apparently possessed information she didn't want
revealed, he assumed she had the Courthouse covered her-
self.
Fliry Vorru frowned. She should have gotten Loor to
send people out to these other sites, too, not just the Court-
house. He flicked on his datapad and called up the reports
from the people he had monitoring the activities of Loor and
his operatives. Of Loor there was no report within the last
hour, when he left his tower. Loor had gotten much better at
eluding surveillance over the past several weeks, but he al-
ways showed tip again in places that made re-acquiring him
painfully easy.
The reports on some of Loor's operatives, on the other
hand, sparked Vorru's interest. Three teams, a full thirty in-
dividuais, had congregated at the warehouse facility Loor
used to store his heavy weaponry. That makes for a big oper-
ation, and I've given Loor no targets for such an operation.
Fliry Vorru realized that one of his facilities was going to
be the target of that operation. Isard's orders were scattering
his troops so he couldn't defend against the assault. It has to
be coming against the bacta storage facility--that's the only
target I control which she would see as valuable. She wants
to take it down to hurt the Republic, but hitting any of the
others would make as much sense. The only thing this gives
her is a terrorist strike against me, which strengthens my
cover and distances me from association with her.
Ordering him to be in a meeting place at a specific time
was meant to get him out of the bacta storage area so he'd
not be killed. If she confided in him the reason she wanted
him out, he'd refuse to do what she wanted, choosing instead
to protect his bacta and the profits he could reap by selling
the "wastage" that occurred with each shipment. As well as
the other loot I have stored there.
Despite the fact that her summons was meant to save his
life, he took little joy in it. If things went as they had previ-
ously, she would appear in hologram and berate him for
what he had or had not done for her cause. She used the fact
that she could betray him to the Rebels as a bludgeo n, and he
cringed suitably when she did so, which seemed to satisfy her
need to see him under her control. As nervous as her message
suggested she was, he expected quite a beating.
What she does not understand, what she has never un-
derstood, is that I don't fear her at all. The Emperor consid-
ered me a rival. She is nothing compared to him. I work for
her because her goals and mine coincide. I can play her off
against the Republic and benefit in the meantime.
Fliry Vorru smiled. He prepared orders dispatching mili-
tia teams to the sites she wanted, though he reduced her
request for a dozen people at each location to three. The rest
he ordered summoned to his bacta storage facility. He
planned to have them moving as much bacta and other loot
as possible to the various storage facilities he had scattered
all over Imperial Center.
When she wants to know why I evacuated my facility,
I'll tell her the Alliance tipped me to a strike. And to make
that seem true . . .
initiated a call. He allowed the sleepy individual on the op-
posite end of the link to awaken enough to understand Basic,
then he spoke slowly and carefully. "Forgive the hour of this
call, Councilor Fey'lya, but 1 knew not where else to turn. I
have learned of an impending PCF strike at a bacta storage
facility. If we act quickly, a great tragedy can be averted."
All Wedge could see of Emtrey in the darkness was the
droid's glowing gold eyes. "What is it, Emtrey?"
"Forgive the intrusion, Commander, but we have just
gotten an urgent message from Admiral Ackbar. There are
terrorists about and we have to stop them."
Wedge shook his head to clear it. "Terrorists here, in our
area?"
"No, sir. They're going to hit a bacta storage site. You're
to fly cover for our troops opposing them."
The bedsheet slid down around Wedge's waist as he
pulled himself tp and pressed his back against the head-
board. "Call in the squadron."
"l have, sir. They're all coming in except for Master
Ven. He's not answering his comlink."
"Keep trying. When you get him, I want to speak with
him. Get to Zraii and start pre-flight on our X-wings. Tell
him I want no fueling delays this time."
"Done, sir." Emtrey pointed at the datapad on the desk
in Wedge's room. "The primary briefing document has al-
ready been downloaded for your review."
Wedge smiled. "Thanks." He threw back the covers and
stepped out of bed. "Caf, k)ts of it, for me and for the ready
room. I have a feeling this mission is not one we can fly in
our sleep."
36
A tone brought Corran awake. A jolt of fear ran through him
when he couldn't recognize his surroundings. He knew he
wasn't in Lusankya anymore, or at least he hoped that was
the case, but the thought that his whole escape might have
been some elaborate charade staged by Isard to break him
down gnawed at his spirit.
He hauled himself off the very comfortable bantha-hide
divan. He'd not intended to fall asleep, but the tunnel-
shuttle's appointments were plush and seductive, especially
in comparison with what he had endured in Lusankya. This
is more impressive than the Hotel Imperial. The shuttle had a
small refresher station which had allowed Corran to take his
first shower since his capture. The Lusankya diet had not
been very high in protein content, so his hair, beard, and
fingernails had not grown much during his captivity; still, he
could have used a shave. Then again, in this tunic, I'm hardly
presentable. He laughed. If it were really that luxurious,
there would have been a closet with a full wardrobe on
board.
Holdout blaster in hand, Corran walked over to the
egress hatch and opened it. Waiting for him was what looked
like a private lift. The box, paneled with dark greel wood,
was otherwise featureless. This made Corran a little appre-
hensive; without controls, he had to assume it was pro-
grammed to go to a specific place. ! don't know if I want to
be there, but I suspect it will be better for me than here. He
entered the lift and the doors closed behind him.
The car ascended quickly and quietly. Corran shook the
lees of sleep from his head. He squeezed himself into the
corner of the car just left of the doors, out of direct line with
the opening. Blaster in his right hand, he was ready to pivot
on his left foot, duck low, and come out shooting if he had
tO.
The lift slowed, then stopped.
The doors opened whisper-quiet.
The musty scent of stale air rolled into the lift. Corran
brought the neck of his tunic up over his nose, then dropped
it again, realizing it smelled slightly worse than the chamber
beyond the doorway. He peeked out quickly and beyond a
gauzy wall of spider webs saw a grey room and shadowy